Wed, 12 Jul 2006
I went to attend the event
Before & After 7/7: Interrogating British 'Security' Policies. Very interesting presentations. The Q&A session was unfortunately partly taken over by consiparicy theorists.
For the past year I have been looking in some details at the impact of our new repressive laws on innocent Londoners. These sessions gave me a better understanding of the bigger context and of some of the related issues. The repressive laws, foreign policies, government discourse and extremism are all interconnected. Going from a system of passive oppression of muslims by occidental regimes to an active oppression such as the war in Iraq has fueled extremism. Many times the case was made that the government is compromised, that its (illegal) actions are endangering lives. Are ministers incompetent or complicit was another way to ask the same question? How far back has foreign policy decisions created strong grievances? The current war in Iraq? The previous war in Iraq? The earlier colonial policies? It is a system that generates conflcts and destroys lives. This is likely why this government is so opposed in having a genuine independent public inquiry in the events of 7/7.
Once more I realised how lucky really I've been in not having been physically brutalised by the Police. Apparently the Police didn't just raid one family in Forest Gate but two houses. No one was shot in the other house but some were hit with the back of a weapon. And this raid was mentioned in the 7/7 anniversary video, again fueling extremism. So counter-productive.
It was my first time inside Westminster. An impressive building... with a very strong police presence.
Demand a public inquiry into the July 7th 2005 London bombings. Sign the petition. More of what you can do
here.
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